Hi guys!!! It’s the tenth month of the year 2017!!! And I am so so so glad that we have utilized God’s grace in bringing you little nuggets of wisdom each month. Help us celebrate this 10th post, by sharing this post with someone who has never read our blog before, and be a blessing!As usual, Barry’s contributions will be written in blue and mine in Italics. Enjoy!

Today we’ll be talking to you about dating with a purpose. I mean, if you’re gonna commit yourself to knowing someone, there has to be a point to it, right? Right!! Though I know a number of people who in the beginning had no long-term plan – eventually they figured it out, so there isn’t one-way to go about this. So essentially, this blog post is for those who have the agenda of going all the way in their relationship. We’ll just share what we have learnt over the time we have spent together, but there is probably a lot more to know concerning this.

Let’s take our first scripture:

“When the Lord first began speaking to Israel through Hosea, he said to him, “Go and marry a prostitute, so that some of her children will be conceived in prostitution. This will illustrate how Israel has acted like a prostitute by turning against the Lord and worshiping other gods.” So Hosea married Gomer, the daughter of Diblaim, and she became pregnant and gave Hosea a son.”

Hosea 1:2-3 NLT

To give a little history, Hosea was a prophet of God. It’s not like this was a punishment. We can clearly see the purpose of his relationship with Gomer. When you continue to read the passage above you find out that Gomer was never faithful to Hosea. Yet, he was expected to keep loving her, to remain faithful to him, to care for her as God continues to love us in spite of our unfaithfulness.That’s not the most exciting relationship to be in, to be honest – but at least they had a purpose they were living out, right? So, when Hosea gets to heaven’s gate, He’ll be able to give God answers, since He did what was expected of him.

Here’s the crux of the issue: every relationship has a purpose. You may not know it from the onset, but you owe it to yourself and your descendants to find it out and fulfill it. It may be a profound one, but it may be as simple as inspiring those around you, or showing others how to genuinely show selfless love. Other times, your relationship’s purpose is to form character in you – being a means through which God will teach you and grow you to be the ideal person He intends you to be.

The bible tells us that all men were created for the glory of God:

“Bring all who claim me as their God, for I have made them for my glory. It was I who created them.’”

Isaiah 43:7 NLT

For this reason, everything we find ourselves doing should glorify God. I’m pretty certain that this includes our relationships (all relationships for that matter, and not just romantic relationships).

Every man and woman has a purpose to fulfill here on earth and everyone needs help to fulfill that purpose. The help could come through a destiny partner, who could either be your life partner or business partner, you get the picture, right? (So, it’s not like the man is the one with a purpose and the woman’s purpose is just to help a man).

However, a man and woman who intend to walk together must have a joint purpose or like-purpose. For example, a man’s purpose may be to build walls and a woman’s purpose may be to breakdown walls. Obviously these two cannot walk together because their purposes are conflicting. In other words, you should be in-sync – not necessarily doing the same thing, but you should be able to help each other fulfill your God-given purposes. Again, I think ‘seemingly clashing’ purposes do not mean you cannot walk together. Using Barry’s earlier example, the woman’s purpose may be to breakdown walls that are built in the wrong places. This way, the woman could guide the man to build walls in the right places such that she will not break down the walls he builds. I hope you catch this.

So far, we’ve mentioned how your relationship should give God glory, and how it should propel you to fulfilling your purpose on earth. Now, I would like to draw attention to the fact that your relationship with your better-half should draw you closer to God. Like I said earlier, some relationships are specifically crafted to build some characters that are deficient in you. For example, I am someone who doesn’t like stress. However, I have been blessed with a life partner who is an expert at being a pest in my life. I believe this relationship was made just for me – to build more patience in me.

I remember in our second year of dating, Barry used to annoy me because he was advancing so much in his relationship with God and I felt like I was being left behind. (hahaha! We thank God that’s past and gone!) This period was one that drew me closer to God because it prompted me to understand that no one is responsible for my spiritual growth but me. No matter how often Barry discusses scripture with me, or prompts me to listen to one sermon or the other, the choice is mine to actively pursue God or not. So what she’s saying is, a relationship can draw you closer to God, but you should have that firm relationship with God with or without the relationship because eventually, all things will pass away, and only the Word of God will stand.

In conclusion, we have realised that having a purpose-driven relationship gives a firm foundation, and gives you a clear picture or understanding of what you are working for in the relationship. Not everyone has their purpose figured out from the onset, but it really helps you be focused, committed and faithful to each other.

We hope you were blessed by this and encouraged to live a purposeful life. Thank you so much for reading this, and have a blessed month!

I am really learning a lot from both of you. I’ve learnt that a partner is not just someone you date, marry and build a family with. A partner just like Osofo Barry said should be someone who would help build a positive side of you. Lovely piece!! God bless you both